【简译】古代的黄金（Gold in Antiquity）

2022-07-18 15:58 作者:神尾智代 0人读过 | 我要投稿

Gold, chemical symbol Au (from the Latin aurum meaning 'shining dawn'), is a precious metal which has been used since antiquity in the production of jewellery, coinage, sculpture, vessels and as a decoration for buildings, monuments and statues.

黄金，化学符号Au（来自拉丁文aurum，意思是"闪亮的黎明"），是一种贵金属，自古以来一直被用于制造珠宝、钱币、雕塑、器皿，以及作为建筑物、纪念碑和雕像的装饰。

Gold does not corrode and so it became a symbol of immortality and power in many ancient cultures. Its rarity and aesthetic qualities made it an ideal material for ruling classes to demonstrate their power and position. First found at surface level near rivers in Asia Minor such as the Pactolus in Lydia, gold was also mined underground from 2000 BCE by the Egyptians and later by the Romans in Africa, Portugal and Spain. There is also evidence that the Romans smelted gold particles from ores such as iron pyrites. Easily worked and mixed with other metals such as silver and copper to increase its strength and change its colour, gold was used for a wide range of purposes.

黄金不会被腐蚀，因此在许多古代文化中，它成为不朽和权力的象征。它的稀有性和美学品质使它成为统治阶级展示其权力和地位的理想材料。黄金首先在小亚细亚的河流附近被发现，如吕底亚的Pactolus河；从公元前2000年开始，埃及人也在地下开采黄金，后来罗马人也在非洲、葡萄牙和西班牙开采。还有证据表明，罗马人从黄铁矿等矿石中冶炼出黄金颗粒。黄金很容易加工，可以与其他金属如银和铜混合以增加其强度和改变其颜色，因此黄金有着广泛的用途。

珠宝首饰

In most ancient cultures gold was popular in jewellery and art because of its value, aesthetic qualities, ductility and malleability. Electrum (the natural alloy of gold and silver) was used in jewellery by the Egyptians from 5000 BCE. Gold jewellery was worn by both men and women in the Sumer civilization around 3000 BCE and gold chains were first produced in the city of Ur in 2500 BCE. The Minoan civilization on Crete in the early 2nd millennium BCE is credited with producing the first cable chain jewellery and the Minoans made a vast array of jewellery items using an extensive range of techniques. Gold jewellery took the form of necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings, diadems, pendants, pins and brooches. Techniques and shapes included filigree (a technique known to the Egyptians from 2500 BCE) where the gold is pulled into wire and twisted into different designs), beaten thin shapes, granulation (surface decoration with small, soldered granules of gold), embossing, chasing, inlaying, moulding and engraving. In South America, gold was similarly worked by the Chavin civilization of Peru around 1200 BCE and gold casting was perfected by the Nazca society from 500 BCE. The Romans used gold as a setting for precious and semi-precious gemstones, a fashion continued into the Byzantine era with the use of pearls, gems and enamels.

在大多数古代文化中，黄金因其价值、美学特质、延展性和延展性而在珠宝和艺术中很受欢迎。从公元前5000年起，埃及人就开始在珠宝中使用Electrum（金和银的天然合金）。在公元前3000年左右的苏美尔文明中，男性和女性都佩戴黄金首饰；公元前2500年，乌尔城首次生产出金链子。公元前二千年早期克里特岛上的米诺斯文明，被认为是世界上第一条缆链珠宝的生产者，他们使用大量技术制造了许多珠宝首饰。黄金首饰的形式包括项链、手镯、耳环、戒指、胸针、吊坠、别针和胸针。技术和形状包括丝线（公元前2500年埃及人就知道的技术），将黄金拉成线并扭曲成不同的设计）、打薄的形状、造粒（用焊接的小金粒进行表面装饰）、压花、追逐、镶嵌、模塑和雕刻。在南美洲，公元前1200年左右，秘鲁的查文文明也对黄金进行了类似的加工，纳斯卡社会从公元前500年开始完善了黄金铸造。罗马人用黄金来镶嵌宝石和半宝石，这种时尚一直延续到拜占庭时代，他们使用珍珠、宝石和珐琅作装饰。

货币

Gold was first used as coinage in the late 8th century BCE in Asia Minor. Irregular in shape and often with only one side stamped, the coins were usually made of electrum. The first pure gold coins with stamped images are credited to king Croesus of Lydia, 561-546 BCE and a contemporary gold refinery has been excavated at the capital, Sardis. Even the purest naturally occurring gold can contain 5% silver but the Lydians were able to refine their gold using salt and furnace temperatures of between 600 and 800°C. The salt mixed with the silver and formed a vapour of silver chloride leaving behind pure gold which could be used to create a standardised coinage of guaranteed gold content. The Mycenaean civilization also widely used gold coins, as did the later Greek and Roman Empires, although silver was the more usual material used. One of the most famous gold coins in antiquity was the Roman bezant. First introduced in the reign of Emperor Constantine it weighed up to 70 Troy grains and was in currency from the 4th to the 12th centuries CE.

公元前8世纪末，小亚细亚首次使用黄金作为钱币。金币的形状不规则，而且通常只有一面有印记，是掺入白银制成的。第一枚印有图像的纯金币被认为是公元前561-546年吕底亚国王Croesus的金币，人们在吕底亚首都萨迪斯挖掘出了一个黄金精炼厂。即使是最纯净的天然黄金也可能含有5%的银，但吕底亚人能够使用盐和600至800℃的炉温来提炼黄金。盐与银混合，形成氯化银的蒸气，留下纯金，可用于制造保证黄金含量的标准化金币。迈锡尼文明也广泛使用金币，后来的希腊和罗马帝国也是如此，尽管银是更常用的材料。古代最著名的金币之一是罗马贝赞特（Roman bezant）。它在君士坦丁皇帝统治时期首次推出，重达70特洛伊粒，从公元4世纪到12世纪都是帝国的货币。

宗教艺术品和其他用途

The value and beauty of solid gold made it an ideal material for particularly important political and religious objects such as crowns, sceptres, symbolic statues, libation vessels and votive offerings. Gold items were sometimes buried with the dead as a symbol of the deceased's status and the conspicuous (and non-profitable) consumption of such a rare and valuable material must surely have been designed to impress. Perhaps the most famous example is the so-called mask of Agamemnon found at Mycenae. In the Inca civilization of Peru gold was considered the sweat of the sun god Inti and so was used to manufacture all manner of objects of religious significance, especially masks and sun disks. In ancient Colombia gold was similarly revered for its lustre and association with the sun and in powdered form was used to cover the body of the future king in a lavish coronation ceremony which gave rise to the legend of El Dorado.

纯金的价值和美感使其成为特别重要的政治和宗教物品的理想材料，如王冠、权杖、象征性的雕像、酒器和祭品。黄金物品有时会与死者埋在一起，作为死者地位的象征，而这样一种罕见的、有价值的材料的显眼（和非盈利）消费肯定是为了给人留下深刻印象。也许最著名的例子是在迈锡尼发现的所谓阿伽门农的面具。在秘鲁的印加文明中，黄金被认为是太阳神Inti的汗水，因此黄金被印加人用来制成各种具有宗教意义的物品，特别是面具和太阳盘。在古代哥伦比亚，黄金同样因其光泽和与太阳的联系而受到推崇，在奢华的加冕仪式中，黄金以粉末的形式被用来覆盖未来国王的身体，这就产生了埃尔多拉多的传说。

As a decorative covering, gold plate and gold leaf (gold beaten into extremely thin sheets) have been used to decorate shrines, temples, tombs, sarcophagi, statues, ornamental weapons and armour, ceramics, glassware and jewellery since Egyptian times. Perhaps the most famous example of gold leaf from antiquity is the death mask of King Tutankhamun.

作为一种装饰性的覆盖物，金板和金箔（黄金被打成极薄的片状）自埃及时代起就被用来装饰神殿、寺庙、坟墓、石棺、雕像、装饰性武器和盔甲、陶瓷、玻璃器皿和珠宝。也许古代最著名的金箔例子是图坦卡蒙国王的死亡面具。

Gold, with its malleability and incorruptibility, has also been used in dental work for over 3000 years. The Etruscans in the 7th century BCE used gold wire to fix in place substitute animal teeth. As thread, gold was also woven into fabrics. Gold has also been used in medicine, for example, Pliny in the 1st century BCE suggests gold should be applied to wounds as a defence to 'magic potions'.

黄金具有延展性和不腐性，被用于牙科工作也有3000多年的历史了。公元前7世纪的伊特鲁里亚人用金丝来固定替代的动物牙齿。作为线，黄金也被编织成织物。黄金也被用于医学，例如，普林尼在公元前1世纪建议将黄金涂抹在伤口上，作为对"魔法药水"的一种防御。

黄金分选

Concerns over the authenticity of gold led the Egyptians to devise a method to determine the purity of gold around 1500 BCE (or earlier). This method is called fire assaying and involves taking a small sample of the material under test and firing it in a small crucible with a quantity of lead. The crucible was made of bone ash and absorbed the lead and any other base metals during the firing process leaving only gold and silver. The silver was removed using nitric acid and the remaining pure gold was weighed and compared to the weight before firing. Archimedes was also aware that the specific gravity of gold is altered depending on the percentage content of base metals, pure gold having twice the gravity of silver for example.

对黄金真实性的担忧导致埃及人在公元前1500年左右（或更早）设计出一种方法来确定黄金的纯度。这种方法被称为火测法，取一小块被测材料的样品，在一个装有一定量铅的小坩埚中烧制。坩埚由骨灰制成，在烧制过程中吸收了铅和任何其他贱金属，只留下金和银。银被用硝酸除去，剩下的纯金被称重并与烧制前的重量进行比较。阿基米德还知道，黄金的比重会根据贱金属的百分比含量而改变，例如，纯金的比重是银的两倍。

Gold is such a precious material that for centuries various attempts were made to produce it through alchemy - that is the chemical transformation of base metals into gold using the philosopher's stone (lapis philosophorum). First attempts were made in China in the 4th century BCE and also in ancient Greece and although unsuccessful, nevertheless, the activity laid the foundations of modern chemistry.

黄金是一种非常珍贵的材料，几个世纪以来，人们试图通过炼金术来生产黄金——也就是用哲人石（lapis philosophorum）将贱金属化学转化为黄金。现今历史记载的第一次尝试是在公元前4世纪的中国和古希腊，虽然没有成功，但这项实验奠定了现代化学的基础。